Farewell Mr. Teacher

If you read the title of this post and thought I was going somewhere, don't worry. My signoff here is MISTER Teacher, as opposed to the abbreviation. However, this week marks the last education.com column that will fall under the MR. Teacher heading. They have decided to discontinue the columns, but I will still be working for them, answering questions on their bulletin board instead.

This final column is titled, "Drill and Kill" and it is all about the excess of safety drills we have been having at our school lately. Unfortunately, the column is not up as of this writing, but I expect it will be soon.

Last night's Black History Month program went well. After just a bit of a rocky start -- I was handed a hand-written program, and frequent edits were made -- things went pretty smoothly. I think a good time was had by all, and nobody (read: ME) embarrassed themselves.

MC Teacher

First a shout out to this week's Carnival of Education, being hosted at Rayray's Writing. Lots of good stuff in the Carnival, as usual.

Also, I am a bit confused about what is going on tomorrow at school. Here's what I DO know:

• There is an evening Black History Month program
• Several kids from the school will be performing
• I am the emcee of the entertainment portion
• I have NO idea what that means...

I trust you see the dilemma.

One of the 5th grade teachers walked into my room yesterday and buttered me up first by saying how much she liked my book, and how she even had TWO copies of it! Then she sprang the trap by saying that I was so funny and so witty, that I should definitely be the emcee of the Thursday night program.

She only really told me a few details. Cryptic remarks about how they already had a Jackson 5, a Supremes, a Jimmy Hendrix, and a Beyonce. Other than that, it was just -- you're the perfect guy to keep things flowing.

Actually, I should probably view my ignorance as a good thing. Because I have no idea what exactly is going to happen tomorrow night, I haven't had a chance to prepare anything and then stress over whether it's good enough.

I'm not sure whether to channel Billy Crystal or Hugh Jackman, though I suspect either attempt would fall flat on its face. I tend to be pretty funny and witty when I'm in a small group setting, but with a mic and a large audience in front of me?

Let's just hope the Jackson 5 can overcome all of my flop sweat tomorrow night.